Hello all i've recently 'gained' a girlfriend (a truly unbelieviable feat for yours truly) but in doing so have now also gained her computer problems.

She's recently purchased an old computer from a friend and everything is working fine except its not playing any sound. I'm going to try and put in my old speakers, which i thought would cure everything, but a message has appeared whenever she tries to play anything in media player saying

"Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program, or it might not be functioning properly."

Oh dear. Does anyone know how one checks to see if the computer even has a sound card...or how to fix it? Id imagine this is a sound card problem more than a speaker problem?

Thanks for your help again people.

First off, where did you connect the speakers if there is no sound card?
My guess is that the drivers are improperly installed, or not installed at all. See if it is an onboard soundcard (google motherboard model number) or a pci soundcard (google the soundcard model number). Reinstall the drivers and see if that solves the problem.